Page 77 of Matched

“What’s this?” I lifted the item, examining it from every angle.

“Your own trophy.”

“How the fuck did you manage to get this commissioned so quickly? Or did you already have it?”

Nate shook his head. “I got it done this morning at the key place near campus. An extra incentive to get you to stay with me.”

“Wow. Okay. You know I didn’t need any extra incentives, but this…” A huge smile spread across my face, accompanied by an inconvenient lump in my throat, as I took in the details. The gold trophy was shaped like a smartphone, fixed to the top of a little stand. “Charlie + Nate” was engraved on the surface, with the word “Matched” just beneath, and below that, the date of our first meeting, right here in The Game Room.It was perfect.

He laughed. “Now you can stop complaining about not having your own trophy.”

I cleared my throat, willing my voice to stay steady. “What? I’ve never complained. Just for that, you can lose to me right now. Pinball. Best of three.”

“You think you’re gonna win? So deluded, Brooks.”

“Shut it, Glover. I’m the one with the trophy, here. That makes me a winner already.”

35

Iwas aware I hadn’t said those three words back to Charlie. Three words that meant everything but were so fucking hard to say.

They were hard, but Charlie deserved to hear exactly what he meant to me. My mind was still overwhelmed, though, struggling to process everything after my world had turned upside down in the space of a few days.

But I had no doubts about the decision I’d made. Not one. What I had with Charlie was too precious to throw away. He was the only person I’d ever wanted to stay for, and I was going to give everything I had to this relationship.

“Come back to mine?” I murmured in Charlie’s ear, banding my arm around his waist. It was so freeing to be able to touch him and know he was really mine, and we didn’t need to hide anything anymore.

“Wanna be my boyfriend?” I asked before he even had a chance to reply to my first question.

“Yes, and fuck yes.” He kissed me, then kissed me again, and again. “I can’t believe this. My mugger Stockholm-syndromed me into becoming his boyfriend.”

“Shut it, dickhead.”

“Your compliments could use some work.” Flashing me a grin, he scooped up his trophy and the folder I’d left for him to find. “Can we go now?”

“Yeah. We can go.”

Having my first-ever boyfriend in my bedroom for the first time was an experience I wanted to savour, but as soon as Charlie was standing next to my bed, all I could think about was getting him naked as quickly as possible.

When our clothes lay discarded on my floor, instantly forgotten, I directed him to lie on my bed and covered him with my body, kissing him down into the mattress.

My lips trailed across his cheekbone and then onto the shell of his ear. “Do you want to fuck me this time?”

His cock jerked against my thigh. “Yeah.”

“How do you want to do it?”

“Like this,” he breathed. “But with me on top of you.”

“Fuck. I want that.” I rolled us over, and let him open me up, so slowly and carefully.

Those three words echoed through my mind, over and over. Even when he eased inside me, filling me like nothing I could have ever imagined, they played on a loop inside my brain.

He made love to me. That was what it was, no matter what either of us said. My words were silent, only spoken inside me,but his were whispered across my chest, pressed into my skin, breathed into my mouth, over and over again until I was lost to it. We moved together, chasing each other towards the edge until I fell without warning, completely obliterated. I was vaguely aware of Charlie thrusting harder and then stilling, but my brain had switched off, finally sinking into blissful oblivion.

Afterwards, I became aware of the wet patch I was lying in. I dragged myself out of bed and then persuaded Charlie to move with promises of a warm shower. We kissed lazily under the spray, washing each other’s bodies, before towelling ourselves off and changing the bedcovers.

Rolling onto my side, I propped myself up on my elbow, meeting Charlie’s green gaze. “I need you to know that I thought about all of this for a long time. I weighed up all the pros and cons of continuing with my original plan and moving to Plymouth or staying here. It wasn’t a snap decision, and I’m not going to change my mind.”

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